News reports - October 2024

19th October 2024: Silver medals for U15 boys at the Northern Cross Country Relays (By Graham Boreham)

After being cancelled due to adverse weather in 2023, the Northern Cross Country relays returned to Graves Park in Sheffield on Saturday on a day that started off wet and cool but ended with sunshine and somewhat unseasonably high temperatures of 15-16C.

Since its inception as a Northern Championships in 2010, Southport Waterloo have never fielded teams in this event until now; 3 teams of junior athletes made the journey across the Pennines to tackle a course that is entirely up or downhill with no level sections, a very tough ask for all athletes who competed here.

The first team to run was the U17 Women, made up of Sydney Monahan Clarkson, Isla Gray and Amelie Scott running 2.3km each. Sydney had a great run on the opening leg and looked solid climbing the hills, then finishing off with a very fast finish on the final downhill in a tussle with girls from Liverpool Harriers and Hallamshire Harriers; she reached the finish ahead of both in 10th position having run a very creditable 8:55. Isla also had a good run; while not quite as strong on the hills as Sydney was she got round her lap in 10:38, before Amelie made up a couple of places on the anchor leg running 10:04 and bringing the team home in 15th position.

Next to go were the trio of George Hawthorn, Lewis McIlroy and James McGrory in the U13 Boys, running 1.8km each. Even though this was only his 3rd race for the club, George is already proving to be a solid performer over distance, and being a first year in his age group there’s plenty more to come. He had a really good run on the opening leg, particularly climbing the hills and came into the finish in 18th position having run 6:11. Lewis slipped over about 400m into his leg but quickly got up again and didn’t lose his position. His long stride enabled him to make up 2 places and open up a gap between himself and those behind and he finished in 16th position in 6:14. Jimmy had picked up an injury earlier in the month which meant he couldn’t run for a couple of weeks but you wouldn’t know that watching him here as he had a storming final leg, making up 4 places climbing the hills and another 3 with a blistering charge into the finish, bringing the team home in 9th position. His time of 5:39 was the joint 6th fastest out of 85 finishers.

Last to go were the U15 Boys with an unchanged team from the 3 sets of road relays; Will Delamere went first then Eddy Clark second and Caleb Still on the anchor. Will had a great start as always and was right at the front climbing the steepest hill but closely pursued by boys from Macclesfield and Warriors. It came down to a sprint at the end and he finished in 3rd spot having run 6:51 for the 2km leg. This was Will’s 4th race in 8 days having run 2 full length cross countries for his school during the week so he did very well to stick close to the front 2 right to the end. Eddy did a great job of making the ground back up on the 2nd leg, quickly went past Warriors and was right on the tail of Macclesfield on the steep hill but coming up behind were boys from Derby and Hallamshire and in the 2nd half of the lap it became a 4 way battle for the lead. Derby came out on top with Eddy passing to Caleb in 4th after a 7:26 leg but it was very close between them all. Caleb went off hard and ran an excellent anchor leg, making up all the remaining ground to the front runners in the first 600m; by the top of the steep hill only Hallamshire were in front of him and their runner ran the fastest leg to stay ahead. They took the win with Caleb bringing the team home for the silver, 7 seconds behind but 27 seconds ahead of Macclesfield in 3rd. His time of 6:47 was the 4th fastest out of 71 finishers and Will’s opening leg was the 5th fastest.

A great day was had by everyone over in Sheffield today, and certainly we will be back next year, hopefully with even more teams. Before that though, the U15 boys are going on to compete at the ECCA National cross country relays in Mansfield on 2nd November; with 101 teams entered it should be an epic race.

Full results

(Ed. These 'Cutlers Relays' have been around for some years and I can certainly find results back to 2006 but probably earlier. They were traditionally an event put on by City of Sheffield AC, and then Sheffield Running Club, as open relays but mainly I think for inter university / college competition and adopted by Northern Athletics from 2010.)

12th October 2024: XC season kicks off with a joint fixture at Blackburn's Witton Park

Leaving aside the unusual and re-arranged National XC Champs at Weston Park in Shropshire in September, the real XC season's first league fixture was held at Witton Park in Blackburn on Saturday. Experimentally, it was a first joint fixture of both the Mid Lancs and the Red Rose Leagues and saw some big races with, for example, just a couple of dozen short of 400 in the Senior Men's race.

Ground conditions were good - well the seniors would expect mud coming through the gate down from the Saucer - and host club Blackburn Harriers had designed a new course for this first joint venture, retaining the challenging climb over the 'Saucer' and including a stream crossing for many of the age group races. The weather wasn't entirely kind, however, with heavy gusting showers during the Senior Men's race; and even a hailstorm for some on the way home!. But it was a great start to the season and 43 Southport Waterloo runners, including several youngsters new to club XC running, took advantage of a great venue not too far from home.

Overall, Southport Waterloo runners had 6 top 10 finishes from the Under 11 to Under 20 age groups: Thomas Delamere, Will Delamere, Caleb Still, Sydney Monahan Clarkson, Liam McCormick and Emily Dean.

To accommodate a joint fixture, some junior races were run separately which would normally be run together, eg Under 13 Boys and Under 15 Girls. The Mid Lancs fixtures in the New Year will be run in the traditional way.

First up were the Under 11 Girls and four Southport Waterloo runners took on the 2 kms short course around the main field. Dora Loxham-Keenan was first home for the club, 11th of the 56 Mid Lancs runners in 10:18. Next in was Amelie Roberts, 26th in 10:58 and then Nevaeh Noyce 44th in 12:23 very closely followed by Emma Gilbertson, 45th in 12:28. With three to count for a team, the girls were 8th; but a team finish in this age group is a rarity and very welcome indeed!

We were even better represented in the Under 11 Boys' race run over the same course and distance. Thomas Delamere showed the family running pedigree finishing 5th of 62 Mid Lancs runners in 8:47. Four of our boys finished inside 10 minutes. Sam Coughlan was 18th in 9:19, Matthew Ndjambula was 21st in 9:27, and William Paybody 29th in 9:46. Jack Mainey finished 39th in 10:20 and @Harvey Lloyd was 42nd in 10:30. Thomas, Sam and Matthew were our scoring team; 3rd behind Clayton le Moors and Rossendale.

We finished teams in both the Under 13 races. The Under 13 Girls ran 2.5 kms entirely within the park. Amelia Salkeld was first home for the club, 46th of 62 Mid Lancs finishers in 13:34 for the 2.5 kms. Next was Gabrielle Otty, 52nd in 14:41, then Ella Boyd, 61st in 18:22 and Caitlin Webster 62nd in 18:51. The team of Amelia, Gabriella and Ella were 11th.

For the Under 13 Boys, Oliver Kimbal was our leader, 15th Mid Lancs finisher in 10:51 for the 2.5 kms, followed by George Hawthorn, 23rd in 11:10, then Lewis McIlroy, 40th in 12:01 and James Silcox, 50th of 61 runners in 12:49. Oliver, George and Lewis were 5th Mid Lancs team.

Sadly, after such good support in the younger age groups, Lauren Silcox was one of only two Southport Waterloo runners in the Under 15 Girls' race. Lauren had a good run, however, to finish 14th of 53 Mid Lancs runners in 13:27 for the 2.9 kms; and the first race of the day to go up over the Saucer. Unfortunately, our other runner in this race, Millie Milligan, became unwell early in the race and had to retire. We hope she makes a speedy recovery.

After a great run of road relay results, it has become expected that our Under 15 Boys will do well in distance running, including cross country running. And we weren't disappointed today with Will Delamere's front-running win over 3.4 kms today. He finished in 12:25. Caleb Still was 3rd in 12:51 with Richard Berry ensuring a team finish coming home in 19th place of 39 Mid Lancs finishers in 15:18. Blackburn Harriers took top team honours but a team finish today was an important start for our boys if they hope for team medals this season.

Both Sydney Monahan Clarkson and Isla Gray competed in the Under 17 Women's race over 3.4 kms. Sydney was 4th in 15:23 and Isla 22nd in 19:49.

In the Under 17 Men's race, Liam McCormick was 6th of 39 Mid Lancs runners, finishing in 19:53 for the 5 km course over the Saucer. Will Rothwell was 21st in 22:31. No team finish here as, unfortunately, numbers tend to drop off in the late teens.

Under 20 Woman Emily Dean ran with the senior women, counting 4th Under 20 and 13th Senior woman in 24:24 for her 5 kms.  Other Senior Women were Michelle Spencer and Carole James.  Michelle finished 67th of 152 Mid Lancs runner in 29:16 and Carole was 83rd in 30:30. With three runners we scraped a team finish, 13th on the day and 5th in Division 1.

Unfortunately, Under 20 Man Reuben Donnelly who would have counted for both Under 20s and Senior Men, twisted his ankle and was forced to retire. Reuben has been running well and that continued today but an accidental mis-step just undoes all the effort. Hopefully there is no long-term damage and we can see him again at Sefton Park.

14 of our Senior Men made the trip to Witton Park. On this occasion, George Ingram was first home for the club, 43rd of 267 Mid Lancs runners in 40:25 for just short of 10K and a demanding three times over the Saucer. David Hamilton was next, 49th in 41:04, then Thomas Iddon, 54th in 41:29, John Delamere, 67th in 42:42 Robert Cheshire 71st in 42:51 and bringing the team home Marc Singer 91st in 44:24. The team were 6th on the day, 3rd in Division 1. Other finishers were Lewis Rooney, 47:06, Steve Wilkinson, 47:27, Keith Swift, 49:11, Neil Adshead, 49:59, Ken Lennon, 50:27, Mike Cunningham, 53:33, Andy McKenzie, 55:39, and Paul Warrington, 55:56.

Thanks to Team Managers and Graham Boreham who looked after the juniors today. For Seniors, the next XC fixture is the L&D race at Beacon Park in Skelmersdale. Then many of our runners will be in Sefton Park, Liverpool, for the annual BA Cross Challenge event on 23rd November. The Merseyside County XC Champs are on 14th December and there are further fixtures in the New Year.

A pair of size 4 1/2 black trainers were left in the tent in an 'Aliveanddirty.co.uk' bag. Contact Ron on RonCoScott@aol.com

Mid Lancs Results

5th October 2024: U15Bs impress again at Nat'l Road Relays

After their success at both the North West Road Relays, inc the Merseyside championships, at Edge Hill University and the Northern Road Relays two weeks ago in Blackpool's Stanley Park, it was time for Under 15 Boys Will Delamere, Eddy Clark and Caleb Still to face the best in the country at the English National 3-stage Road Relays in Sutton Park, Birmingham, on Saturday. The decision to attend was only confirmed the day before as Eddy was ill most of the week but the boys impressed again, excellent ambassadors for Southport WAterloo distance running. Keeping to the same running order as before, Will led off sticking with the leaders to finish 3rd in 12:18 before handing over to Eddy who did well after being ill but dropped 4 places to finish 7th for his 3.88 km leg in 13:37. Caleb brought the team home, improving two places for 5th in 12:54.

Will's 12:18 was the 2nd fastest on the day, with Caleb's the 8th fastest in the 3rd leg. 67 teams started; 52 complete teams finished.

Although Southport Waterloo finished 5th team, the first team over the line were disqualified so the final result was a 4th place in a national final, something all three boys can be proud of and can go into the cross country season with improved confidence.

We don't like to see any athlete or team disqualified but when it happens because of the actions of others it is particularly upsetting for the runners.